


Kindling From Ashes

by Ohms_Law



Category: Hololive, HololiveEN, Virtual Streamer Animated Characters
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, F/F, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Takamori
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:35:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29596323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ohms_Law/pseuds/Ohms_Law
Summary: Nothing lasts forever. Time takes its toll on Calliope and Kiara's comfortable life.
Relationships: Mori Calliope/Takanashi Kiara
Comments: 5
Kudos: 103





	Kindling From Ashes

**Susumouto Village, Japan**

Mori Calliope did not need to sleep. As a shinigami, sleep, along with several other human functions, just wasn't necessary. Calliope could get tired-last night certainly proved that-but even while resting she was wide awake. 

Despite this, Calliope had spent the last 7 hours lying in a double bed, bundled neck-high in blankets. When she'd first started this habit, Calliope had expected to be bored out of her mind. A century ago, spending a third of the day prone would have ended with a natural disaster. Now though, it was her favorite part of the day.

The reason for Calliope's new attitude groaned. She rolled over, exposing her face to her lover. Takanashi Kiara was the best thing to ever happen to Calliope. 

48 years, 4 months, and 12 days ago, Kiara had died. Calliope had gotten the name on her list and was shocked to find her charge vanished from the face of the earth. It wasn't the first time there'd been a mistake with her list, so she wrote it off. It wasn't until the name showed up again 10 years later that she'd decided to figure out who Kiara was. 

To Calliope's surprise, she'd found not a human, but a phoenix. Initially, the shinigami was frustrated. A bird that refused to die would be an eternal nuisance, showing up on her list over and over and over for all time. When she'd expressed as much, Kiara had doubled over laughing. She couldn't believe that an emissary of death's complaint about an immortal was so mundane. 

The memory brought a smile to Calliope's face. For some reason, the shinigami and phoenix had just clicked. They spent more and more time together until Calliope spent almost every moment not working by the redhead's side. 12 years ago, Calliope had asked her boss if she could be assigned as Kiara's designated reaper. Since a phoenix would keep dying forever, it made sense to have someone whose job it was. Calliope knew it was pointless-she basically already was assigned to Kiara-but her boss had given her a knowing smile and agreed.

Kiara groaned again. Calliope knew from experience that meant she'd wake up soon. The shinigami slowly moved under the covers, trying not to wake the phoenix. She made it out of bed and crept halfway to the door before a creaking floorboard ruined her efforts. 

"Kikkerikii..." Even half-awake, Kiara still made her rooster call. Calliope abandoned her sneaking and walked around the bed to Kiara's side.

"One day you're going to tell me what that noise is."

Kiara gave her a dopey grin. 

"I told you, it's how phoenix's sound!"

Calliope matched Kiara's smile, although far sharper. 

"Really? Last night you said it was a mating call." Her smile turned into a Cheshire grin. "And after everything you asked for, I feel like it is. Could it be you're asking for something so scandalous so early in the morning? Was all that really not enough to satisfy you?"

Kiara squealed and hid her face under the covers, but Calliope saw the blush. 

"Calli! I-i-it isn't like that! You're still naked!"

If Calliope felt pain, her cheeks would be in agony by now. 

"So? I seem to recall you were quite insistent on making me like this. Tearing, biting... you didn't stop until you passed out. I had to carry you back here after the end." The mound under the sheets wriggled in shame. "And what an end that was. A tarp was a good idea, but the fire got around it."

There was a pause before Kiara's voice squeaked out.

"How bad was I this time?"

"We need a new couch."

As Kiara's ashamed shrieking warmed her ears, Calli left to make breakfast. Teasing Kiara was too fun to resist, and she didn't want the bed to catch fire as well. Kiara could flirt with the best of them, and she was ravenous in bed, but even the slightest embarrassment broke her.

Calliope didn't understand mortals' obsession with sex. She knew that they liked looking at others naked and that touching certain parts of their bodies felt pleasurable, but they were all so awkward about it. It was like the mortals didn't _want_ to enjoy each other. 

It was probably just something a person had to experience. Shinigami didn't reproduce like living things, so they had no sex drive. She found Kiara beautiful, of course. Her lover was easily the most breathtaking sight on the planet, but Calliope's nether regions stayed perfectly arid, much to said lover's frustration. The shinigami didn't mind though. Kiara very much did enjoy sex, and anything that brought her bird so much joy was more than worth doing. It was hard to explain to their neighbors why they kept shipping in fire extinguishers, but everyone in the village had accepted the couple was just weird.

Kiara and Calliope had moved to the village two years earlier. Susumouto was a remote place in the middle of nowhere. The town refused to modernize and was mostly populated by elders. The women insisted they weren't "settling down," it just made more sense to stick to one place. They had bought the place as a couple because it made the paperwork simpler, not for any other reason. Sharing a bed was just an economic decision since it was cheaper. They'd had a mountain of justifications for what they were doing.

The excuses hadn't even lasted a month.

Calliope moved through the kitchen with practiced ease. Her clothes weren't made of real fabric, so she simply willed them back onto herself. Cooking for Kiara was a strangely domestic feeling. She could almost imagine herself as a housewife. She could probably be one if she and Kiara only figured out what the hell they were to each other, but Calliope would rather walk through a literal minefield than try to navigate that conversation. 

Nothing lasts forever, but for now, she could pretend this would.

* * *

**7 years later**

Her first experience was always fire. It engulfed her essence, her being. Before she knew anything else, she knew fire.

Takanashi Kiara opened her eyes. She was lying on her back against surprisingly warm grass. The sky above her was bright blue, with barely any clouds. 

She didn't find any of this surprising, but she couldn't tell why. Kiara was a phoenix who had just revived, but that was all she was sure of. She leaned upward and put out a hand to prop herself up. Unfortunately, her hand moved further than she expected, and she fell flat on her face.

Right, motor functions always took a while to come back. Her friend had guessed it was because the magic didn't keep muscle memory, but they weren't exactly an expert on muscle themselves.

She had a friend? Kiara tried to grasp onto the memory, but it slipped away. She had so many random memories that fluttered about like dust in the wind. Trying to focus on any particular one was impossible, and even the general shape was elusive. 

Slowly but steadily, Kiara stood up. She was so wobbly a strong breeze could have taken her out, but it was progress. A choking sob came from behind her and she spun around. Mercifully, she managed to stay on her feet, but the sight that awaited her sent her jaw to the floor. 

The most beautiful woman in the world was standing five feet away. Admittedly, Kiara had only seen one so far, but she doubted it would change anything. The woman wore a light green blouse with a black skirt, exposing her pale and ashen legs for the world to see. Kiara dragged her eyes up to a chest that almost dared her to stare at it. Seriously, it was just absurd! 

With willpower greater than anything else in her two minutes of life, she made it up to the woman's face. Flowing pink hair billowed out from behind her, but all Kiara could see were the reddish eyes. The woman was on the verge of tears. 

What's wrong? Kiara tried to ask, but all that came out were a series of rasps. She couldn't remember how to speak! It shouldn't be that hard, everyone did it all the time. Babies didn't need to learn to make noises, they just did. Try as she might, all that came out was verbal gravel.

Kiara stomped her foot angrily. She knew how to do this. There was a trick to get it working again. Something that jogged her memory and reminded her brain what to do. 

That was it!

"Kikkerikii!!!" she cried. It was like recovering a childhood memory. There's nothing there until some random detail brought it all flooding back. To talk she just had to make noises like that one, but slightly differently.

For some reason, Kiara's first word broke the other woman. She fell to her knees began openly weeping. The sound was heartbreaking, and before she knew it, Kiara was hugging the woman and comforting her.

"You're alright, I promise. It'll be ok. You'll be ok." The woman looked up at Kiara like she was seeing an angel. "You'll be ok, I promise. Can you tell me your name?" 

Kiara's innocent question set off a wild series of expressions from the woman. In a second, she went from horror, to fear, to disappointment, and finally resignation. 

"I'm Calliope. Calliope Mori." She gave her name like she was walking into an execution. 

"That's a bit of a mouthful. Can I just call you Calli?" Kiara was treated to another cycle of expressions. 

"No- actually yes, please- I- you don't understand..." The woman fell silent. Kiara waited, willing to give her as long as she needed. After a minute, she answered. "Do what you want."

Kiara nodded, more to herself than Calli. She knew what she had to ask, but that didn't make it easier.

"Calli... I knew you before, didn't I?" A nod. "Right. I mean, I figured so, but I wanted to be sure."

"You... you told me." Calli was slow but determined to speak. "You told me how it worked. That when you... when you died you wouldn't remember me... remember us. I knew, but it still..." Calli seemed to force back her tears.

Why had Kiara done this? She knew that getting too close could hurt people, so why? The memories she still had of Calli were mere glimpses. Trying to figure out who someone was through disparate memories was normally impossible, but a few of Calli's left no doubt as to their relationship.

"We were lovers." The air left Calli's body. She deflated, falling into Kiara's arms like her strings were cut. "Oh Calli, I'm so sorry." This was her fault. She'd made Calli like this. Even as a stranger, the pain in her former lover's eyes was unbearable. Kiara could spare a century cleaning up her own mess. "I... I can't leave you like this. I can be her if you want, the Kiara you lost. I might not be perfect, but I'll learn quickly and-"

"NO!" Calli shoved Kiara away. There was a surprising amount of force behind it, so much so that Kiara rolled across the ground a few times. Quietly but firmly, Calli spoke. "Don't do that. Not for me. I'll... I'll get over it. Get over myself." She turned to walk away.

Kiara didn't know Calli. The last five minutes and a kaleidoscope of random moments were all she had, but Kiara knew that if Calli walked away now, she'd never see her again. 

"Wait! Wait, wait dammit!" Kiara scrambled to her feet and ran after Calli. Calli ignored her, so the phoenix tackled her. 

"The fuck?!" Calli struggled under Kiara but couldn't break free. "Get off me! I'm trying to help you, you idiot."

"Then why the hell are you leaving? You love me and I'm pretty sure I loved you, so what's the problem?" 

Calli actually snarled. 

"The problem is that you're not _her_! The woman I loved died. You're just a fake wearing her body. Go fly away, be happy with the life you stole from her!" Kiara stopped fighting, but Calli wasn't resisting anymore. Her tears had returned. "Please... I can't do this. If you stay I'll only clip your wings. You deserve to fly freely. Otherwise, we'll be stuck here, doing this over and over."

Tears streaked down Kiara's face. She didn't know Calli. She shouldn't care about Calli. She'd almost certainly had a hundred lovers before and left each one of them too. So why..?

Kiara howled at the sky as a wave of heat emanated from her. All of the grass in a 5-foot circle around them died, drying away along with her tears.

"Fine, I'm not her! But so. Fucking. What?!? I'm still a person. I still feel things." Kiara was practically screaming in Calli's face. "I don't give a shit about the old Kiara. She hurt you, so she can fuck off as far as I'm concerned." Calli opened her mouth to speak, but Kiara pressed on. "I-not that dead bitch, me! I want to get to know you again. I want to relearn all your stupid little habits, all your pet-peeves. I want to relearn what keeps you up at night and be there to help you sleep when it does. I want the mistakes, the tragedies, all the weird childhood stories. And I don't know why! I'm sure this is all emotion leftover from her, but I still feel it. Maybe we can be lovers again, maybe we'll end up hating each other, or maybe we'll just end up as fucking good pals!" Kiara's rage ran dry, her energy spent. She slumped over until she was lying on the ground next to Calli.

"Kiara..."

"If you want to call it clipping my wings, fine. I'll clip my wings for a chance at happiness. When I die, the memories that stay are the ones I care about most. And every single one of hers has you. If being a bird means I have to fly away from you, then I'll be a shitty bird."

There was silence for a long time. Calli and Kiara stared at each other, lying in a circle of dead grass, expressions of dread and hope warring. For the two of them, that circle was all that mattered in the world.

After so long that time had lost meaning, Calli snorted.

"Kusatori."

Kiara had been prepared for several different responses, but that wasn't one of them. Her confusion must have shown on her face because Calli explained. 

"If you're going to be such a shitty bird, I might as well call you one. Kusatori is Japanese for shit-bird." Calli sighed, letting out a breath she didn't need to hold. "That's as good a place to start catching you up as any. You see, we're in Japan right now, and I'm not exactly human."

**Author's Note:**

> This was a pretty quick turnaround and is a lot less storyboarded than my other fics but after the takamori stream last night how could I not?  
> Interestingly, this is the first story I've written where my characters didn't run away from me. I had a plan for what I wanted to happen, and then I wrote it. It was a really weird feeling to see the finished story matched up with my notes. Part of me feels like I didn't put enough into the characters, but I also feel like if I let them run wild I might write a bad ending, and I don't think my kokoro could bear that.  
> On an unrelated note, all the ways to say someone's voice is high-pitched look really similar. Squeak, squeal, shriek, screech, etc. Just something I noticed while writing.  
> Also, while I have more room to fill, can I just say I hate commas? So much of my writing style relies on them. I try to write a mixture of character perspective and stream of thought. I think this gives a good mix of getting inside a character's head without having all of their thoughts spelled out to you. In practice, I often end up bouncing between the two, but that isn't the point. The point is that I try to use commas where a natural pause while speaking would be. This works a frustrating 85% of the time. It's a good enough rule of thumb that I can't stop using it, but that 15% when it doesn't work drives me insane. I write my stories in Grammarly (free version because I'm poor lol #relatable) and most of the mistakes it points out are about comma placement. It drives me insane, especially because the way people think (or at least how I think [a sample size of one is pretty garbage but it's all I've got {since I'm not a telepath}]) isn't consistent with proper grammar. For example, my last fic has 31 punctuation errors that I left in on purpose, and this one has 18. Hell, this end note has 6 so far!  
> Also, also, I suck at describing people. Like seriously, half the reason I write fanfiction is that I get to skip most-if-not-all of the character descriptions. People are so hard to describe! Most of them look the same anyway! I can tell people apart, but my brain does all that on its own. I just look at a person and it spits out a name. I have no idea what characteristics are necessary! I would say the lack of ability to describe people is my biggest weakness as a writer right now, followed by my inability to come up with metaphors/similes (the other day I saw a fic that described someone as hovering around like a dipole around a magnet; how do you come up with this stuff?!) and lack of character voice (I do my best but everyone still talks pretty much the same).  
> Not sure where this was going. Gonna go back to being sad now.  
> Glory to takamori!  
> I also have a Twitter: @Ohmslaw7922


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